Tuesday, February 23, 2016

Continuing an annual CCBC effort of over 30 years, we’ve
documented the books we received in 2015 that are created by or are about
people of color or from First/Native Nations. Here are the numbers*:

*numbers updated April 5, 2016 (additional titles came in). The commentary that follows the bulleted numbers below reflects the numbers in our original post of February 23.

268books had significant African or African American
content

92 of these were by Black authors and/or illustrators

106 bookswere by Black book creators

14 of these had no visible African/African-American cultural content

42 books had American Indian / First Nations themes, topics, or
characters

18 of these were by American Indian/First Nations book creators

19 books were by American Indian / First Nations authors and/or illustrators

1 of these had no visible American Indian/First Nations content

113 books had significant Asian/Pacific or Asian/Pacific American
content

45 of these were by Asian/Pacific or Asian/Pacific American

175bookswere by authors and/or illustrators of Asian/Pacific heritage

130 of these had no visible Asian/Pacific or Asian/Pacific American content

82 books had significant Latino content

40 of these were by Latino/a authors and/or illustrators

58 books were by Latino/a authors and/or illustrators

18 of these had no visible Latino content

These numbers as well as those for previous years are available on the CCBC web site.

As always, we are drawing this information from the
books we receive at the CCBC.We received about 3,400 in 2015. While
we can’t read every single book from cover to cover, we do our best to determine
relevant content by hands-on examination of every title. We work to
identify authors and illustrators whose books should be included in our counts
from information on book jackets, websites, social media, other online
sources, and sometimes the authors and illustrators themselves.

In determining
“significant” content, we are referencing visibility and inclusion. This in
turn brings up two important things to note about our statistics. The first is
that we are regularly faced with making decisions to determine if cover art
depicting racial diversity is truly representative the book itself.
Sometimes it’s easy to note a book’s content (X: A Novel), while other times making that determination
presents more of a challenge (Fifteen Dollars and
Thirty-five Cents). This is also reflected in the ongoing flood of
paperback series publishing, many with a primary cast that includes at least
one non-white character.

The second important thing to note is that in doing our counts,
we are are not evaluating any of the books for cultural substance or
authenticity. We are documenting quantity, not quality.

How do the 2015 numbers compare to previous years? Some
numbers are up slightly from last year, but from the past we know a slight
upward fluctuation is not necessarily sustained in subsequent years. A
few numbers have made larger leaps, some of which we conjecture about below.

The number of books with significant African or African American content
increased by almost 50%, from 180 in 2014 to 261 in 2015. The number of
books by Black authors and/or illustrators made a more modest climb, from 84 in
2014 to 100 in 2015. Numbers of books with First/Native Nations content or
authors or illustrators, books with Asian/Pacific or Asian/Pacific American
content, and books by Latino authors and illustrators stayed virtually static,
while the count for Asian/Pacific heritage authors increased from 129 in 2014
to 173 in 2015, and books with Latino content rose from 66 to 82 during the
same time.

While we welcome any increase in these numbers, which have stayed largely
flat for decades, we also know there are several factors that are likely
responsible for some of these changes. We have always received the majority of
our books from mainstream U.S. trade publishers, getting most new titles
annually. We also have always received some formula series non-fiction titles.
In recent years, as CCBC statistics have been cited with increased frequency in
the media and online discussions, we’ve begun receiving some books from
publishers outside the realm of mainstream trade publishing or educational publishing who are sending titles specifically because they know
we are keeping track of multicultural books.

We are also seeing more books with “casts” of characters that are
diverse, including, as noted earlier, paperback series publishing. But it
extends to stand-alone trade titles, too. While white authors writing books
with characters who are people of color or from First/Native Nations is nothing
new (and a topic much debated and discussed), what we are seeing that is
different are more books with two or three main characters, of who one – or two
– are people of color.

When it comes to our numbers documenting books by authors and
illustrators who are people of color or from First/Native Nations, it should be
noted they include multiple books by individual authors and artists. The 100
books we noted by Black authors and illustrators, for example, do not represent
the work of 100 different Black book creators. This is important to understand
because part of the essential work in publishing a more diverse body of books
each year for children and teenagers--books that reflect our nation's racial
and ethnic diversity and the diversity of experiences within and across these
dimensions of identity--is to expand the numbers of authors and artists of
color and from First/Native Nations getting published.

Of course, as noted above, not every book by every
author or illustrator of color or from First/Native Nations are about those
cultural experiences. This is important to keep in mind when we're considering who is writing literature reflecting diversity for children and teens. So we see, for example, that althoughwe documented 111 books about Asian Pacific/Asian Pacific Americans, only 42 of those were written by Asian Pacific/American authors and illustrators. That means that 68 of the 111 books (or roughly 68%) were written or illustrated by non-Asians. Author Ellen Oh recently addressed this issue in a provocative post.

A selection of the books we documented in 2015

The CCBC began
documenting these statistics back in 1985. They are one piece of a much larger
effort that spans a far greater number of years. It has always been led by
people of color and First/Native Nations, joined by others who also know that
while books matter in the lives of children and teens, what’s in them matters,
too.

It would be
wonderful to think that a day will come when we won’t need to keep track of
these numbers because publishing for children and teens will have become truly
representative of the cultural diversity of the audience it serves. But we
aren’t there yet. Not nearly. Year after year we can point to wonderful
multicultural books that come out, and year after year that heartens us. But
this work also must continue.

Wednesday, February 3, 2016

The following is excerpted from the
brief commentary on 2015 children's and young adult books that will appear inCCBC Choices 2016,our annual best-of-the-year list.
The CCBC Choices 2016booklet
will be available after March 5. ( How
to get a copy of CCBC Choices 2016).

Throughout the year as we read, we try to observe trends, themes, welcome surprises, and sometimes simple coincidences
among the books published for children and teens. In 2015, one of the first
things we couldn’t help but note as books came into the CCBC was the continued
explosion in young adult fiction. Our shelves are still groaning under the
weight of all that teen drama.

Among all those books were some themes
and common threads. This included quite a few titles about teens with mental
illness, ranging from anxiety to OCD to depression to schizophrenia, among them
the National Book Award-winningChallenger Deep. This was also the year of the road trip in young adult literature. It
was a device used with varying degrees of success, withThe Porcupine of Truthamong our favorites.

We also continue to see books that blur
the lines between young adult and new adult.Taking Hold, which concludes Francisco Jiménez’s memoir cycle, follows him through
graduate school at Columbia. The intriguing graphic novelSculptoris about a fine artist in New York
City.Sculptoris one of the several books we’ve
included inChoicesin recent years in which not only
the audience but the publisher (in this case, First Second) is a crossover,
with titles that are not always distinctly either young adult or adult.

There were a number of fine works of
fiction for children, including one that broke new ground: the blithe and
tenderGeorge,about a transgender child. It's among a few such titles, and has solid elementary-age appeal. Gender
and sexuality were also given groundbreaking treatment for children in the
outstanding informational bookSex Is a Funny Word.

The picture books we found most
arresting were those tackling difficult topics with incredible honesty and
sensitivity. The extraordinaryTwo White Rabbitsspeaks in the
voice of a child describing things she sees on a journey with her father. Only
the essential illustrations reveal they are refugees fleeing toward the U.S. /
Mexico border. The movingMama’s Nightingaleis in the voice
of a young girl whose mother is in prison awaiting a deportation hearing. And
reassuringYard Salespeaks in the voice of child whose
family is having to sell many of their belongings.

Funny Bones,winner of the Robert F. Sibert Informational Book Award, leads us into what we consider the real
story when it comes to children’s and young adult literature in 2015: increased
focus on and discussion about multicultural literature. Some would say this
began in 2014, with the launch of the We Need Diverse Books initiative, and
that group’s work is welcome and critical. But many people of color and
First/Native Nations have been drawing attention to issues of race and racism
in children’s literature for years, as well as to the need for more books by
authors and artists of color and First/Native Nations.

The 2015 ALA children’s and young adult
literature awards, recognizing books published in 2014, were notable and
invigorating regarding the diversity represented in choices across the awards
(rather than seeing diversity only in awards whose purpose is to recognize
books by authors and artist of color and First/Native Nations). That excitement
continued with the recent announcement of the 2016 ALA awards, for books
published in 2015, which reflect even greater racial and cultural diversity.
The choice ofLast Stop on Market Street,a picture book
(picture book!), for the Newbery Award, written by a Latino author with an
African American protagonist and illustrator (it also received a Caldecott Award honor citation for the art), was as deserving and welcome as the choice ofCrossoverlast year. But the good news didn’t
stop with the Newbery. Across the ALA awards, this year’s list of winners and
honor books is one that reflects and speaks to multiple dimensions of the
identity experience.

In the year between these two award
announcements, a lot was happening in children’s and young adult literature and
in our nation with regard to race and racism. It’s been a hard year in so many
ways. Perhaps no book captures some of this agony as well asAll American Boys, a
groundbreaking look at racism, police violence, and white privilege.

Late in the year, a lot of attention in
the children’s and young adult literature world focused on the depiction of
enslavement in the picture bookA
Fine Dessert. There was also conversation about references to American
Indians in the historical novelThe
Hired Girl.Those discussions
were hard, painful, and honest in ways that weren’t always easy to read. They
revealed not only how far we’ve come, but how far we have to go in our field in
understanding racism and working to challenge it. Yes, what’s in a book
matters. Of course it does.

Increased
diversity of representation within and across racial and cultural experiences
in literature for youth, and indeed across the human experience, is not an
option, it’s essential. So, too, is critical thinking in how such books are
made. Children and teens deserve no less.